NASCAR Track Facts: Las Vegas Motor Speedway

“NASCAR heads to Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the third race of the 2009 NASCAR season.
Here is a quick run down of trivial facts and statistics for this weekend’s Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV.

Las Vegas Motor Speedway History

The first NASCAR race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was a NASCAR Camping World Series, West race won by Ken Schrader on Nov. 2, 1996.

The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was held on March 1, 1998, won by Mark Martin.

The first NASCAR Nationwide Series race was held on March 16, 1997, won by Jeff Green.

The first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race was won by Jack Sprague on Nov. 3, 1996.

Track Numbers

There have been 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Only four of the 11 races have been won from a top-10 starting position and none have been won from the pole.

Four of the 11 races have been won from a starting position outside the top 20.

The deepest in the field that a race winner has started was 25th, by Matt Kenseth in 2004.

There has been one green-white-checkered finish at Las Vegas: 2006 (270/267).

Qualifying has never been canceled at Las Vegas.

Matt Kenseth has a 9.0 average finish in nine Las Vegas races, the best of any driver with more than three starts. He has been running at the finish in all nine of those races and has finished on the lead lap in eight. Kenseth has also led 438 laps at Las Vegas â€“ 179 more than any other driver.

Roush Fenway Racing had five drivers finish in the top 10 in the inaugural Las Vegas 400 in 1998. In five of the 11 races, the winner at Las Vegas was driving for Roush at the time: Mark Martin (1998), Jeff Burton (1999 and 2000) and Matt Kenseth (2003 and 2004).